I agree a lot of horrible things have been done in the name of religion and I could certainly live without the pope.Sometimes the bad intentions had some good results, Columbus came here in part to spread christianity -- discovered a new world (new to them), the syphilis -- uncool.

He thought it was India. And, forcing people to be a religion they are not is not a "good result". Spending the next 400+ years massacring people that don't want to give you their land 'cause you claim it in the name of your god and king, and die based on unknown diseases etc., get pushed into reservations that are barely liveable because the land they're on has "treasures", but it's okay, 'cause it's all in the name of Biblegod and Jesus, and whoever else. And, if you think it was just Catholics that did this, you're an idiot.

And all that is just for North America. There's still the brutality that Christians brought upon Central and South America, which since Catholics do and have ruled those two areas for centuries, blame can be slighted more toward them: but they're still Christians.

I doubt any of the Biblical accounts of Hebrews or Jews who commited such atrocities is true. I don't think history provides an actual basis for such a reality: I think those stories are all mainly "fairytales"

If Mars was "terraformed", it would have an atmosphere and geology that would protect us from the radiation. If the core, however, is too far gone to become active again, Mars' atmosphere may never stick in the first place, and thus terraforming would be impossible. I'd imagine that the colonies we place on Mars would be "pod" colonies...like what is seen in Total Recall.

I'm pretty sure the core has solidified. No magnetic field, lethal radiation. You could build underground, and it's possible there's liquid water below the surface. We know for a fact there's plenty of ice. From that you can make air to breathe and fuel for whatever needs fueling.

The one thing that always bothers me about these ideas (and movies and games set on Mars) is the gravity. It's only about a third of Earth gravity. Long term that would mess you up. I guess if it was a one way trip, it might not be much of an issue, but anyone coming back from Mars will have a long rehab period once they get home.

And I don't really mind the idea of a one way trip. Much of the colonizing of the new world was one way. It's not like the folks on the Mayflower had plans to go back to England.

There are some major differences between colonization efforts like the Mayflower and a one-way trip to Mars. The Pilgrims could breathe the air, drink the water, eat the fish and corn, etc. and build whatever they needed with the tools they brought. Even so, something like half of them died over their first winter. Martian colonists would be relying on a whole lot of complex high technology from Earth to provide substitutes for things (e.g. ecosystem services) the Pilgrims got for free. They'll be at the far end of a very long, very tenuous supply line for food, replacement parts, etc.. Few if any of those key components will be things the settlers can fabricate themselves from local materials. A lot of "industrial depth"[1] is required to produce things like seals for spacesuits, air pumps, carbon scrubbers, rover motors, solar panels, etc.. A tiny handful of Mars colonists would not be able to replicate the necessary industrial depth for their colony to be self-sustaining.

In the case of this particular proposal, they mention that revenues will come at least in part from a reality TV show--so the settlers will have the additional joy of living on the set of Big Brother, with their lives depending on their ratings and the company's profits. Sounds like grist for a very dark sci-fi story to me...

Think of all the different machines and skills it takes to mine various ores and turn them into a precision-machined motorized air pump--and all of the machines and skills to produce those machines, and so on.

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"The question of whether atheists are, you know, right, typically gets sidestepped in favor of what is apparently the much more compelling question of whether atheists are jerks."

Am I the only one who thinks this is a damn waste of money? Are they going to learn anything on Mars that will feed the hungry on earth, help us fix what we've screwed up in our atmosphere, replace what we've used up & wasted, cure any diseases?? Anything fricken useful for real anyone other than scientists and academics??

Google Neil degrasse Tyson and NASA budget. That will get you a long way towards understanding why stuff like this is not frivolous.

Ahem. The pilgrims migrated to an already populated country. There were towns, villages, farms. People had already "discovered" and "colonized" the Americas--for several thousand years.

Let's hope we never treat the people on other planets the way Europeans treated the people here.

I wonder if they would treat us the way we treat the Mexicans -- Ignore us for years & then start bitching about all of us illegals that don't speak Marsish & don't pay taxes & have all these fricken white, black or brown babies that they have to pay for...

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It doesn't make sense to let go of something you've had for so long. But it also doesn't make sense to hold on when there's actually nothing there.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a damn waste of money? Are they going to learn anything on Mars that will feed the hungry on earth, help us fix what we've screwed up in our atmosphere, replace what we've used up & wasted, cure any diseases?? Anything fricken useful for real anyone other than scientists and academics??

Google Neil degrasse Tyson and NASA budget. That will get you a long way towards understanding why stuff like this is not frivolous.

I wholeheartedly agree. Dr, Tyson makes rational, passionate arguments for a shift in our national priorities in terms of spending. I bought Space Chronicles at the beginning of the summer, but my summer reading so far has been fiction rather than start reality based stuff.

This Mars venture, however, is part of the new experiment in the privatization of the space industry. I am dubious about its success. I would prefer to see a national commitment of resources to the sciences in general. But in spite of my philosophical reservations, I'm still hoping for the success of the private sector. It sure beats doing nothing.

This project will be funded in a variety of ways. First off all, there will be sponsors/investors from the super super rich classes (think EV's recent post) who are more than happy to drop a few million dollars each in hopes that their heirs will have a controlling interest in the new frontier. These are probably the same interests that are landing grabbing in Africa and speculating in anticipation of global food shortages. They want to make sure that their descendants control the food in the old world, and have a say in the creation of the new worlds.

In addition, they say that they are going to make a reality TV show out of the selection process. This is actually a brilliant strategy. After a lottery, they will end up with a bunch of candidates. Then they will televise the selection process, both publicizing their efforts (and increasing the interest of potential donors) and making money off of voyeuristic viewers and corporate investors. I admit that I would watch the show. And I am not part of the pre-existing "reality tv" crowd. They will make gobs of money.

From what I can tell, they have a surprisingly solid financial plan. I don't like it. But I think it is solid.

PASADENA, Calif. July 30, 2012, 06:04 pm ET PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — It's NASA's most ambitious and expensive Mars mission yet — and it begins with the red planet arrival late Sunday of the smartest interplanetary rover ever built. Also the most athletic.

Like an Olympic gymnast, it needs to "stick the landing."

It won't be easy. The complicated touchdown NASA designed for the Curiosity rover is so risky it's been described as "seven minutes of terror" — the time it takes to go from 13,000 mph to a complete stop.

Scientists and engineers will be waiting anxiously 154 million miles away as the spacecraft plunges through Mars' thin atmosphere, and in a new twist, attempts to slowly lower the rover to the bottom of a crater with cables.

By the time Earthlings receive first word of its fate, it will have planted six wheels on the ground — or tumbled itself into a metal graveyard.

There have been quite a few failed landings on Mars. If prayer would help Curiosity, I would most certainly pray. But instead I will just feel a sense of hopeful anticipation for a safe landing and a successful mission.

Foods destined for space shuttle missions must have a shelf life of a year, and 18 months if they’ll be deployed on the International Space Station. Of the roughly 65 foods currently available for stocking spacecraft and deemed really palatable by NASA taste panels, 10 will lose their appeal within a year — turning off-color, mushy or tasteless, she reported. By the end of five years, Perchonok says, “we’re down to seven items.”

Moreover, she adds, “studies have shown that if the acceptability or the sensory properties degrade, so does the [food’s] nutrition.” Indeed, after one year, space food exhibits notable losses of vitamin A, folic acid (an important B vitamin) and thiamine (another B vitamin that plays a role in the body’s use of carbs and certain building blocks of proteins). And nutrient losses don’t end there, Perchonok says. “Basically, after one year, we are out of vitamin C.”

Although the 2-year-old pears retain the color of newly packaged ones, the prolonged storage left them unpleasantly mushy. Sure, NASA could supply astronauts with multi-vitamin pills. But that’s no panacea, Perchonok observes, since preliminary studies by NASA have shown that the potency of vitamins diminishes faster in pills than it does in foods.

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco Posted in Space, 22nd February 2012 00:35 GMT

NASA is looking for volunteers to prepare foods during a simulated Mars mission that will see six lucky people locked in close proximity for 120 days.

Researchers from the University of Hawaii and Cornell University are looking for volunteers for the simulation, dubbed the Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue & Simulation (HI-SEAS), which will aim to solve the problems of space cuisine. The purpose is to make sure that astronauts making the long trip to Mars get proper nutrition on the trip.

HOUSTON -- Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1960s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the early years of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.

Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

All in all, this Curiosity, mars lab/rover, sounds pretty cool. This is the way to explore space. It is far more cost effective and is pretty cool. Can't wait to see this thing landing. My guess is that it will discover a Starbucks with the 1st 15 minutes.

I once saw something regarding a new "reality" show. I don't know what it is called but it was to be interactive with the audience. ie. The audience decides who sleeps with who and such. I wonder how much control over people's lives they will try to take if ratings start to slip?